The 69th Macau Grand Prix is back on the map as the Sports Bureau, Pun Weng Kun stated to the media in a Sports Bureau meeting.
As such, the development marks the return of the GP, however, motorcycle racing hasn’t been 100 percent confirmed yet by the council, but there is a chance that two-wheelers will make a return should negotiations go well.
“Our plan [for this year’s GP] is still the four-day event and we forecast that it will include seven [different] racing events. We hope that with a four-day event we can attract tourists to Macau to enjoy the whole event and stay for around six to seven days,” Pun said.
The event will be held from November 17, 2022, to November 20, 2022. The motorcycle races were suspended for the past two years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but it is likely to come back as sources have stated that the foreign racers have already been contacted to participate in the event.
“The organizing committee wants to have this race back and the racers also want to come,” Pun added.
Furthermore, Pun stated that “we know that some racers were available to undergo a quarantine period of two weeks [in the past] so now with the 7+3 measure I think we have a better chance of negotiating with them. Our policies already allow the entry of foreigners, but we still need to follow the quarantine rules. If there are sportspeople who have already entered the mainland from other places, they can potentially enter Macau without quarantining according to the rules. But we need to analyze these on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, they need to undergo quarantine if they arrive from medium and high-risk areas. We need to follow these guidelines because our main principle while organizing these events is safety.”
There are also plans for a 70th “Special Edition” GP. The plans will take place in 2023, however, there are no concrete plans at the moment.
“There isn’t a concrete idea yet but we are already planning and preparing this 70th edition. We are thinking that maybe we can have some different races using different types of vehicles,” Pun said, adding, “We are already negotiating with different entities. We know that for this year, we cannot organize the three world cups [FIA World Touring Car Cup, FIA GT World Cup, and FIA Formula 3 World Cup]. We do not have much to announce at the moment but I can say that we are negotiating [for the return of these three racing events in 2023],” stated Pun.
